After I left the police station and returned to the office, I happened to see the HR manager putting up recruitment ads on the noticeboard. I walked closer to take a look and noticed that my department was recruiting too.

Then again, that made sense. Two members out of our five member department died suddenly one after another, so the department was shorthanded.

Starting a recruitment exercise immediately after the death of a colleague to ensure sufficient staff to handle the workload of the department was proof of Li Sa’s forward thinking. Of course, since she could become the head of the department, that wasn’t the only example of foresight she displayed. She had even thought so far as to conclude that the real killer was also from our department and would be arrested by the police soon, so she told HR that she had three vacancies to fill.

And because I had turned up at the scene of the crime both times, I naturally became a suspect in the eyes of my colleagues. I could feel how cold and distant Li Sa was to me now. Shao Xiangyu did speak to me from time to time, but he was always wary around me. Colleagues from other departments also pointed fingers at me and gossiped behind my back.

I couldn’t stand how everybody looked at me like I was a murderer when I wasn’t, so I climbed to the top floor one afternoon during lunch, stood next to a window and took a smoke break. I wanted some time by myself for some peace and quiet, but to my surprise, I heard footsteps coming up the stairs when I lit up my second cigarette.

I turned to look and noticed a figure walking towards me in the shadows.

It was too hard to see who it was, so I took a couple of steps forward and saw who it was. It was my colleague, Shao Xiangyu.

He asked me concernedly, “Why are you up here?”

I forced a smile out. “I just wanted some peace and quiet.”

As he came closer to me, he said, “I noticed that you were out of sorts all day and spotted you climbing up the stairs to the top floor just now. I was afraid you might do something silly so I came up to check on you.”

I was so grateful for his concern that I smiled at him and laughed it off. “If I were really depressed enough to jump to my death, wouldn’t that make me look like I committed suicide out of guilt? I wouldn’t want to help the killer get off the hook.”

Shao Xiangyu was shocked by what I just said. I murmured quietly, “The killer…who would be so cruel as to kill their own colleagues?”

Actually, after I returned from the police station the last time, I couldn’t stop thinking about these two murder cases. Even if Han Shaoqing had really been poisoned by a bottle of water that Guo Jiangyin planted in her stash before she died, who killed Guo Jiangyin then?

At first, I thought that Guo Jiangyin had failed in her attempt to kill Han Shaoqing and got killed by Han Shaoqing instead. But after that talk with Han Shaoqing on the rooftop, I felt that Guo Jiangyin’s killer wasn’t actually Han Shaoqing after all.

Since Guo Jiangyin’s killer was someone else, would this same person be the one who actually poisoned Han Shaoqing? After all, Guo Jiangyin had already decided to use my method instead of hers to kill Han Shaoqing that day. There was no need for her to also use her poisoning method.

My thoughts were interrupted by Shao Xiangyu. “Ma Ke, do you really think the killer is from our department?”

I didn’t say anything.

He asked again, “What would his motive to kill be?”

If anybody had a motive to kill those two ladies, I would be the first on that list. But I didn’t kill them. So, who was it?

He seemed to have seen through my thoughts and asked, “You were at the scene when both of them died. Tell me honestly, who do you think the killer is?”

I stared at him for a while, then my phone suddenly rang. I took it out and saw that it was Inspector Ji who was calling.

Since the police was calling me, I figured it must be something important. So I walked closer to the window to answer the phone while Shao Xiangyu respected my privacy and remained where he was.

The first thing I heard when I picked up the call was Inspector Ji’s accusatory voice, “Why did you lie to the police?”

“Me? I didn’t!” I quickly denied it while wondering if the police had discovered my role as a middleman.

“Still trying to argue with me? You said you dated Guo Jiangyin for only a month, but the two of you dated for at least three months.”

I quietly breathed a sigh of relief. I was just going to go with whatever he said. “Ah…how did you know?”

Inspector Ji smirked proudly and said, “It’s all because I’m such a detailed and meticulous person. I asked the forensic doctors to do another autopsy on the body. Guess what he found?”

“What?”

Inspector Ji’s tone of voice changed immediately. He suddenly sounded very upset as he said, “Today, the forensic doctor did a full autopsy and discovered that Guo Jiangyin was three months pregnant when she died. What a pity, you were about to become a father.”

That child clearly wasn’t mine, but that didn’t stop me from pretending to burst into tears.

As I sobbed and sniffled while hanging up, Han Shaoqing’s last words suddenly came to mind.

“The company has a policy against employees dating one another.”

“Looks like she must have really fallen for you. She knew that both of you would be fired if the company found out about your relationship. Perhaps that’s the reason why she decided to do something risky like secretly sell company secrets. She was trying hard to earn enough for both of you if you two were asked to leave.”

“In order to hide your relationship with Guo Jiangyin and keep your job, you could have killed her and pushed the blame on me!”

Until the day she died, Han Shaoqing had thought I was Guo Jiangyin’s lover and thought that I had killed Guo Jiangyin because I was afraid of getting fired if our relationship were exposed.

I thought that maybe she had guessed the killer’s motive correctly. But I wasn’t the one dating Guo Jiangyin. It was somebody else.

But if that was the case, who would it be?

Would he also be a colleague in our department?

The entire department was left with only three staff. Guo Jiangyin wasn’t interested in women, so Li Sa was out of the picture. I wasn’t dating her either, so the only person left was Shao Xiangyu!

Just then, I felt a chill down my spine and quickly turned around. Shao Xiangyu had crept up behind me without me realizing it.

The next thing I heard was his sinister voice, “Guo Jiangyin was pregnant with MY child. Why are YOU crying?”

My face paled. “You mean…you were the one who killed Guo Jiangyin?”

Shao Xiangyu laughed mirthlessly. “That woman kept pestering me and even used her pregnancy to threaten me. I just didn’t want to lose my job.”

I retorted, “But you didn’t have to commit murder either!”

He burst out laughing. “I decided to actually commit murder entirely because Guo Jiangyin told me about the plans you two had to kill Han Shaoqing.”

I was shocked. “What? So, you were hoping to frame me for the murders?”

He sighed. “It’s too bad. If nobody owns up, the police will continue investigating this case.”

My face grew even paler. “Wh-what do you want?!”

His expression looked threatening as he said, “Perhaps if the killer committed suicide out of guilt, the police would have a good reason to close the case.”

I could sense danger coming towards me and opened my mouth to scream for help.

But before I could get any sound out of my mouth, Shao Xiangyu suddenly pushed me very hard. I couldn’t catch my balance and fell right out of the window behind me.